As soon as I took the NZXT H9 Elite case out of the box, Jacob said it looked like the Lian Li O11 Dynamic (opens in new tab). He would not shut up. But to be fair, he absolutely nailed it. There is no getting away from the fact that this three-sided tempered glass PC middle tower is essentially a brushed aluminum copy of Lian Li's classic case.

But that's not really a bad thing, and the classic phrase that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery seems to apply here: since Lian Li makes cases that many PC gamers love, it should be okay for NZXT to make its own version.

Now, the problem is that NZXT is not bringing anything particularly new to the party, aside from a higher price tag. However, this H9 Elite (opens in new tab) is only $10 more than the O11 XL case ($230) with the same dimensions. This NZXT case also has the H9 Flow (opens with new tab) trim, which has no tempered glass top panel and perfectly matches the mesh topside of the O11 XL.

The H9 Flow is cheaper at $160 and has only a triple pack of F120 RGB Duo fans and a tempered glass top.

Either way, you get a PC case that is almost a presentation case. It will adorn a stand at a trade show or provide a system that will fill over a million "check my build" posts on Reddit for any PC from here to the heat death of space.

There are even posts of builds using the Lian Li O11 Dynamic chassis. OK, I promise to mention that case just one more time from now on.

One of the things NZXT does best is build good cases, and the H9 Elite is a really good high-end case The H9 Elite is a really good high-end case. The tempered glass enclosure gives the case a presentation case/fishbowl effect and provides enough RGB lighting effects to really show off the supermodel components and give them a real impact.

In addition, more working PC components can be hidden in a separate partition behind the motherboard. This partition allows for cleaner cable management and at least some wires can be hidden behind sheet metal. I am a big fan of these partitions. Especially when they are well thought out to allow enough space for the power supply and its associated cables without being crammed in.

Corsair and Lian Li have long used this and I have been a long time user. I have not had many sharp cuts on my fingers as a result of fiddling with Lian Li chassis in the past. For example,

I have never lost blood or flesh when I built a full PC into my H9 Elite.

However, I was a bit puzzled by the placement of the PSU tray on this NZXT box: it is centered on the rear side of the H9, and is positioned on the edge, so the fans exhaust sideways through a mesh panel. This in itself is not a problem, as it shortens the cable distance from the power supply to the motherboard, and the CPU power cable is not extremely long, but the PSU is located directly behind a large notch on the motherboard designed to allow free access to the back of the processor, CPU coolers cannot be mounted.

However, putting the PSU there means that it is not freely accessible, and cramming the PSU behind the processor could also lead to heat buildup. I'm still not sure why NZXT doesn't offer a simple modular arrangement that allows the PSU to be repositioned like in other cases.

This is my only design issue with the H9 Elite. The case offers a really clean look, and the included RGB fan looks pretty good when all the LEDs in the case work together. This is not so much an issue with the case as it is with the RGB fan controller that NZXT bundles with it, and the way proprietary plugs are in the PC world.

I'm not 100% sure who the culprit is, but Corsair's gorgeous new H100i LCD XT cooler (with an NZXT-esque display) has been installed in the case, causing two fan controllers to overlap the case. one for the NZXT fan and the other for the Corsair fan. And because the RGB cables from the fans have different plugs.

If I had used standard plugs for both, there would have been no problem and I could have added the Corsair coolers to my build and controlled the fans from a single app. But not so, I would have to either specifically choose an NZXT cooler to complement the NZXT case, or cram two different fan control boxes into the chassis and use both CAM and iCUE software at the same time.

Still, the brilliant hot pink that lights up is great.

I was really impressed with the ease of integration into the H9 Elite and the final look. However, we could have been equally pleased with the H9 Flow. An extra RGB fan and tempered glass top are not necessarily at the top of my case must-have list. Even if it's more for looks than cooling effect.

Again, these extra luxuries aside, we must finally return to the fact that we are looking at a case that shamelessly mimics the Lian Li O11 Dynamic. Recall that "imitation is the best form of flattery," but the full quote is actually not very endearing.

The H9 Elite is certainly not mediocre, and is an excellent alternative to the classic Lian Li, and the H9 Flow version can actually be had for cheap. Whether the added glass panel, RGB controller, and triple RGB fans are worth the extra $100 or so for the Elite version remains to be seen, but it certainly looks great lit up. But it does look beautiful lit up.